Well, Andy Roddick make a statment last year. He said that he is going to play as long he feels he has a chance to win big tournaments. And as a fan, I was very proud of this statement.

Well, in the last three slams, without RG, he has not reached QFs. And the last time he was in SF was Wimbledon 2009. Too many loses like this. I see absolutely no chance for him to at least go deep in these tournaments. I really hope he thinks seriously about this. I mean, if he can't change anything, why bother playing. He has great career, has played enough, has nothing to proove. As a fan, it is painful to see him like that. I mean, Andy is losing to everybody. I am not a great tennis coach, not even close, but something has to be changed in his game. Otherwise, by the end of the year, he will be outside top 10 for sure, if not top 15.

He is slowly becoming like Hewitt or Safin. As a fan, I really hope that something will change. Otherwise, I hope this is his final year.

I agree. He never really believed in working to get to the top. He became very shallow outside of tennis, so tennis is nothing.
He's buying a mansion. It's obvious where his sense of security & passion are. He knows it's too late to train his mind & body again because
- no one in his family bothered to tell him to change.
The Roddicks enjoyed the money, Davis Cup with the useless, 2-faced bitch idiot Pat McEnroe....and the charity events were great ways to escape tennis. Punishment & humiliation are nothing to him; he was taught that bullshit.

- he was self-abusive & constantly embarrassing himself in public with his
'I don't play top 4 tennis' nonsense.
He, as a result, choked in big matches. He always gave the 'Federer is genius excuse'.

As much as I'm po'd at Andy, I do still feel for him, especially with the way everyone is basically laying the decline of American tennis at his feet. When he and the Williams retire, it's going to be even bleaker and you can see it with Andy sucking and the WS injured. Sam is the epitome of not caring and John is really where he is supposed to be. He's not top 10 material, in my eyes. Jury is still out on Harrison but I think the next American great is someone who isn't known yet. I guess what's making everyone upset is not that Andy lost but how he's losing. He just needs to forget about everything and just go for his shots. He's at the end and I think he just finally resigned himself to that fact this week. He has nothing to lose by just going for it. The way he's playing now isn't doing anything for him except causing frustration and earlier exits at tournaments.

I guess what's making everyone upset is not that Andy lost but how he's losing. He just needs to forget about everything and just go for his shots. He's at the end and I think he just finally resigned himself to that fact this week. He has nothing to lose by just going for it. The way he's playing now isn't doing anything for him except causing frustration and earlier exits at tournaments.

You are absolutely right.

It feels like the first half of 2006. Maybe it is too early for such a statement, but stil...The thing is, Andy is not 23 anymore. I can't see something chancge. And I can't see who is going to play the role Jimmy played in Andy career back then.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Andy Roddick has been coached to death. He is a wild animal who, trying to get a little control of himself, has allowed himself to be trained into a house pet. Sit Andy, sit.
Roddick’s career doesn’t have to be over. All of his skills are still there, and he has even added some. But he doesn’t contend in the majors anymore, and doesn’t even reach the quarterfinals.

“Conditions were colder, so slice wasn’t really working,” he said Sunday after losing to Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round of the Australian Open. “I wasn’t able to get the ball to jump much, so a lot of the shots he hit were in his pocket and…”

Oh my God. If this is the new and improved Andy Roddick, then I liked him better the old way, when he was the dumbest tennis player on earth. The guy has a 140 mph serve and he’s talking about cold weather and slice?

Well, Roddick is out, as is every American player, man or woman. Or in Roddick’s case, puppy.

This is all wrong. Roddick isn’t just losing every important match. Roddick has lost Roddick.

At one point, he had a presence. He fought to the death, had a loud persona on court, crushed the ball. He was your All-American tennis player, with passion overwhelming thoughts.

Now, he powderpuffs his forehand, keeps his backhand in play, waits for his opponent to miss.

In tennis terms, he is a dinker.

It doesn’t work. He bashes his massive serve, and if it’s an ace, then great, point over. That’s what people see of him. But when his serve is returned, it usually is floated back short and soft, setting Roddick up to bash a forehand and bully his opponent.

Instead, he steps and loops a soft, spinny forehand, immediately handing back control of a point.

Why?

Wawrinka played him the way any good player will. He moved in on the return to cut off angles on Roddick’s serve. Then, he just bunted back his return. There was no pressure on him to do more.

I was one of the early ones to complain about Roddick’s dumb tennis. First time I saw him in person, he lost to Pete Sampras in the U.S. Open. It was supposed to be a torch-passing from old guy to young.

Then Sampras rolled Roddick, who stayed 15 feet behind the baseline and never… changed… one… thing while he got crushed.

Eventually, the cries came from everywhere for him to actually develop a game plan, not to mention a backhand. He has gone through years of different coaches, and non-coaches and stubbornness. He finally landed on Larry Stefanki, who helped to reinvent a thinner, fitter Roddick with good footwork, a decent backhand and an ability to mix things up some.

Roddick nearly beat Roger Federer in a classic Wimbledon final. Remember? He has reached just one quarterfinal in a major since then.

Let me start a new cry. Stop thinking, Andy. Swing as hard as you can on your forehand.

And stop taking that big, looping, flipping backswing to get spin. Pull the racquet back, then drive through the ball, the way you did when you beat Rafael Nadal in Miami last year.

Since then, Roddick went into a match at the French Open totally defeated, assuming he was going to lose. At Wimbledon, he couldn’t put away a nobody in the fifth set. At the U.S. Open, he lost to Janko Tipsarevic, berating and bullying a line judge for correctly calling a footfault on him, but accidentally identifying the wrong foot.

Tipsarevic noted that Roddick’s forehand used to scare people.

What sort of fear did Wawrinka have about that forehand? Before the match, he was practicing with his left hand. Was it some sort of defensive posture?

“I’m practicing a little bit because I make a bet with a friend in the summer,” Wawrinka said. “I need to play a match against him with my left hand, so that’s why I’m practicing every day.”

Roll over, Andy. Roll over.

The debate about Roddick has still not been decided. Has he overachieved, spending a decade in the top 10 without a ton of talent? Or is he an underachiever, winning a major and then climbing to No. 1, briefly, when he was young then never winning another major again?

I go with the second one. He never built on his talent, as the top tier of talent, Roger Federer and Nadal established a higher level of Tier 1.

Now, Roddick is not a threat in majors to Tier 1, and not even to the top challengers, Tier 2.

Roddick is 28, ranked No. 8, and in Tier 3 and falling. And he’s worried about his inability to hit his slice.

He has taken the blame for all that is wrong with American tennis. That’s because he hasn’t lived up to Sampras and Andre Agassi. Give him this, though: He’s the only American man good enough to get himself into position to be criticized.

Honestly, I don’t know if he has the fortitude to win another major no matter what he does. But I’m positive he can’t out-think Federer and can’t out-rally Nadal.

Either Stefanki has taken this project way too far or Roddick is ignoring him. We can’t know for sure.

But here’s to hoping that he doesn’t just let his career wind down this way. Next time someone tells him to sit, he should show his teeth again and bite someone’s hand off. If that doesn’t work, well, at least he takes some flesh with him.

I guess what's making everyone upset is not that Andy lost but how he's losing. He just needs to forget about everything and just go for his shots. He's at the end and I think he just finally resigned himself to that fact this week.

QFT. Stan was playing well, but mostly because Andy was letting him. I kept waiting for him to step up from the baseline, or realise that Wawrinka was only blocking his serves back, but he didn't. He kind of just went away for a little bit and then showed some fire at the very end, when it wasn't enough.

And then Stan did the same thing against Roger today, except worse. Argh.

That article is brilliant. I seriously was :retard: when I was watching Fed/Wawa. Andy makes everyone look good and then you find out what an illusion it all is when they get ripped apart the next round.

He didn't really care when he played the 2004 Australian Open.
He just obsessed about money & superficial crap.
Jimmy Connors already said Andy was an old dog that couldn't learn in 2008.
Rodd's emotion control & intellect declined 6 years ago.
He should've retired 5 years ago. Puppies are smarter.